Full Moon
by carlee.nae
Summary: Remus is feeling particularly moody because of the full moon.


**A/N: So it's been a while since I've posted something, but readers are just gonna have to deal xD This was written for one of the many challenges I'm taken. I've had writers block since November, so I was getting pretty desperate. Beware... the end is rushed and horrible because writers block was slowly making its way back to me...**

It was a universally known fact that Remus Lupin was one of the smartest students at Hogwarts. He participated in class discussions, handed in all his homework all the time, the teachers just simply adored him, and he got the best grades in every class. That is... every class except for Transfiguration.

Sure, Remus still got his incredibly high grades in the subject, and Professor McGonagall – although strict and intimidating - secretly showed favouring towards him, but there was still one person who was better than him in this particular subject. This student just happened to be one of his best friends.

Remus had always known and accepted that James was brilliant in Transfiguration, but the one thing that annoyed him the most was that James didn't even really _try_ to do well. Whilst Remus was doing his homework and studying for the tests and exams, James was generally mucking around. It just seemed that he had a natural gift for the subject.

It never really used to bother Remus, but over the past six years, he had begun comparing himself to James. He was definitely beginning to get competitive. He was just so used to getting the good grades that Remus felt the _need _to beat James at this one subject. He wasn't normally like this, getting competitive – Remus believed that trying your best was all that mattered. He was just sick of being second best, he wanted to have the lime light back.

It was a couple of weeks after Christmas when Remus finally cracked. The day was cold and even though the castle was chilli, the four Marauders were feeling warm thanks to a mild warming charm that Remus had cast for them. In this Transfiguration lesson, there was nothing special happening. The four boys sat at the back of the room. Wormtail was at the end of the table, his back hunched with his head in his hands. He was undoubtedly falling asleep as McGonagall lectured the students on the basic wand movement necessary to cast a basic bird to object spell.

Padfoot sat next to Peter, rocking backwards on his chair. His tie was loose and the first couple of buttons of his shirt undone. This was undoubtedly what Sirius did to try to catch the eye of plenty of girls and apparently, this strategy worked for several of the girls in the class looked around every now and again to catch a glance at him. Sirius was spinning his wand in his hand, clearly not paying attention to McGonagall or to the wand spitting out sparks. A couple of the girls were now giggling.

Between Remus and Sirius, James wasn't paying attention to the lesson neither, but rather pretending to be writing notes when really he kept looking up at Lily Evans then looking down back at his work again. At one point, James scrunched up a piece of parchment and aimed at her, hitting Lily on the shoulder. She spun around, a glare spread on her features.

Prongs blushed and bobbed his head back down, pretending to take notes again. Remus just supposed that his friends just wanted to see his crush's face. He tried to ignore his games, but he just couldn't. The thought of his friend being an idiot rather than taking notes just infuriated him, especially when he knew that James was just going to breeze through the next test.

Before the class ended, Professor McGonagall handed out graded essays that had been due in before the Christmas holidays had begun. Remus definitely had a good feeling about this essay. He had spent three nights researching, then four nights writing the actually essay. This was a lot more time than he usually spent on small assignments such as these. Remus was hoping to get an O for his efforts.

The corner of McGonagall's mouth twitched upwards when she handed James back his assignment, and that was definitely a good thing for him. "Brilliant work, Mr Potter," she said. "You must have put some hard effort towards this essay." Remus thought he saw an 'O' marked in red ink at the top of James' paper.

He rolled his eyes mentally. James had written that essay only the night before it was due. Remus could remember that night clearly because he was basking in the thought that James was finally going to fail a Transfiguration assignment.

McGonagall's brows knitted together when she took a step in front of Remus. This was _not_ a good sign for Remus, not at all. He gulped, knowing that this was going to be bad.

McGonagall dropped the parchment on the desk in front of his, and Remus' heart sank. An Exceeds Expectations was rare for Remus. He was _not_ expecting this! The professor pursed her lips and said, "Mr Lupin, I'm quite surprised." Her voice was lowered, most likely not to let too many people over hear. "This is not your best work, I'm afraid."

These words bubbled up anger within Remus. Of course this wasn't his best work! It was supposed to be one of his best pieces of work, but that plan had completely turned against him!

"If you are curious about where you went wrong, feel free to see me at the end of the lesson," McGonagall continued. "I'd be happy to show you."

When McGonagall walked off, Remus caught James stretching his neck to see the mark on his paper. Remus shoved the essay in his bag, hoping that James didn't get the chance to see his mark, and when the bell went signalling the end of class, Remus stood up quickly and left the room before anyone could say a word to him.

-x-

Remus knew that the rage building up inside of him was mostly brought on by t the fact that the full moon was in just a couple of days. Truth be told, he ignored this fact, because the rage felt good in a way. He stomped across the common room, ignoring the gaping stares from the fifth year students sitting by the fire. Once up the stairs and in the sixth year boys dorm, Remus slammed the door shut and threw his books across the room. It missed his bed and hit the floor with a loud thump.

He hated the fact that he tried so hard just to get a worse mark than James, who hadn't even tried. What Remus hated even more, though, was the fact that the full moon was causing him to react to situations far worse than normal.

Of course, this fuelled his anger more. Remus ignored the rushed thumps of several people running up the stairs and picked up his cane laundry basket, throwing it across the room. Dirty laundry flew in all directions when the door flew open.

Remus sat on his bed, resting his head in his hands. He felt pathetic, getting angry over something so small; he felt weak, letting the full moon take control of his emotions; he felt embarrassed that his friends had seen him at his worst.

"Moony, mate," Sirius said in shock, being the first to react. "Are you okay?"

Remus didn't answer. He couldn't speak.

"Remmy?" It was James. He sounded worried, but Remus couldn't care less at that moment.

There was silence, Remus unable to answer his friends, and the other three not daring to say anything else. Finally, after an unknown amount of time, James spoke up again. "Sirius, Peter, could you leave the two of us be?" he whispered.

Remus felt the bed sink beside him. "I'm sorry," he choked out, feeling embarrassed. "It's the-"

"Full moon?" James finished for him. "Yeah, I know you can't help it, but what started it?"

He was tempted to answer with the obvious 'Greyback did it', but thought it better to tell James the real reason; but telling him was hard, for it was such a small thing. "I'm so used to being the best in every class."

James burst out laughing and Remus looked up in complete shock. At first, he was offended that James would think of this as a laughing matter. This was an embarrassing situation for Merlin's sake! Then Remus, too, began laughing softly. It was such a small issue, with the reaction so large. He found the laughter calming, and he was immediately in a better mood.

James swung an arm around Remus and the two stood up. "Come on, Moony," the taller boy said. "We have a full moon night to plan."

Whilst planning his transformation and the adventure they Marauders were to have was daunting to Remus, he was grateful that he had friends to be with him and accept him for who he was.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked it! R&R? Even constructive criticism is accepted ^.^**


End file.
